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I've started to get a little serious about the little road rallies I've been doing, and decided that high-beams alone aren't quite enough for me. So, I bought some Hella FF1000s. They came Wednesday and boy was I happy.

That's a pint glass in there, for scale:



I made some mounting brackets out of flat steel (2x3/16 and about 7" long), and spraypainted them a nice glossy, rust-proof blue. I was able to use the chop saw, drill press, and grinder in the civil engineering lab at my school.



I cut holes in my bumper cover. with a dremel tool.



And attached the brackets directly to the bumper with 1/4" bolts (I replaced the sheet metal screws in the picture)



There's a little extra wire that I'm going to shorten tomorrow with some of those in-line conncetor things and heat-shrink tubing.



I drlled through the firewall for the switch, and sealed it with a rubber grommet and silicone.



You know that blank panel where the air suspension switch goes?



Now it controls my driving lights. When the switch is on, they turn on with the high-beams. When it's off, they don't:



I guess you might want to see them already. I'll take a few more pictures during the day



Wiring is not that difficult.:


Relay pin 30 -> red wire -> ring terminal for +12v
Relay pin 87 -> blue wire -> driving lights
Relay pin 85 -> black wire -> ring terminal for ground
Relay pin 86 -> green wire -> spade terminal for switch

There's another green wire with a spade terminal on one end; this green wire connects from the other side of the switch to the high beam wire.

And there's a split black wire that goes from the lights to a ring terminal for ground.

Red wire from relay: Positive battery terminal

Blue wire from relay: Driving lights.

Green wire from relay: Switch. Connect the other green wire from the switch to one of the headlights' high beam wires. For both headlights, these wires are red.

Black wire from relay: Splice it into the headlight's common wire. On the right headlight, this wire is blue with a white stripe. You can use either one.

Black wire from lights: Ground. I used the neg battery terminal.

Thanks Vikash for the help with wiring. The above information came from a PM from him.

sweet! how much did those set you back if you dont mind my asking? Ive been contemplating getting a set.
that mount setup is pretty slick.
did they come with a relay or if not which one did you use?
got any pics of the beam they put out?

Awesome, those are just where mine are. I mounted my switch in the same location but have never been able to get it to work.

I didn't know that the N/As don't have the diamond shaped rubber pocket on the firewall.

Nevertheless good lookin Hellas.

Nice setup. Let's see the beams those things put out.

Nice lights man, I like the mounting too, cheap, easy and clean.

Ditto on the mount, nice work.

Looks like your headlights could use a good polishin too.

Damn, those are huge! Looks good.

The kit was $90 from rallylights.com, and came with both lights, the relay, fuse, wiring, and switch. The directions they came with were a little different from how I read they're supposed to be connected on our car because the ground is switched, which I was able to get cleared up through a few PMs to Vikash.

They're not aimed yet and I haven't even left my driveway since putting them on, so I have no idea what the beam is like. This evening I'm going to get a tape-measurer and level and see if my driveway is flat enough.

I've navigated for someone with them on an overnight TSD. They're plenty bright

I'll be getting a set of them most likely when I work on assembling my lighting setup this year.

Are you doing anything for cornering lights?

Nothing for cornering lights. I suppose I could put some smaller rectangular lights into the fog light holes under the bumper and angle them outwards at some point. Possibly in time for the rally after the next one.

A few more pictures:

Extra wiring before



Extra wiring after



We'll just sneak that wire under the little lip on the fender.



Close up of the mounts:





Lets turn those bad boys on:





New picture from Rim:

Looks great. That makes atleast four of us who have Hellas mounted up front. Lets start a club.

How sturdy are those mounts? I did a much ghettoer job with my smaller and lighter lights, and mine vibrate some when I'm bouncing over the potholes.

Yeah, they vibrate a little. I'm going to put some rubber washers between the mounts and the bumper. It should help. Otherwise I could find some thicker/ wider steel. The mounting bracket is 2.5" wide and I'm using 2" steel, so I could use that without a problem. The store I went to just didn't have it.

They put out so much more light than my high beams, though. I can't wait to get on a dark backroad. I might have to take a drive up some canyons this week.

Oh, and I still have enough steel to make two more sets of brackets, so if anyone wants some I'd send them for about the cost of shipping. I imagine they would have been really hard to make without a chop saw, grinder, and drill press.

Nice, i'm going to relocate mine under my bumper. i'm not sure how yet but i'm going to try

But driving lights work so much better above the bumper than below.

Well, looks like I'm going to need to attach the brackets to the bumper cover with a nice bolt. Damn. And I was really hoping I wouldn't have to take off the bumper cover.

What about just pulling off the centre grill, and drilling down from there? That's how a friend has his mounted on his RS.

He actually went so far as to tap the beam, so that the bolt threads into it.

Oh, so I'd be able to just reach through the bumper cover to tighten the bolt? That would make things easier. The sheet metal screws don't hold quite as tightly as I need. Or maybe I just need some longer screws.

You might be able to get around behind it... I haven't looked at mine closely enough yet. I'll ask some guys I know how they handled theirs, and get back to you.

I think my friend AJ wins the lighting award....



I've never seen lights brighter than these.

Are the big ones 4000s and the foglights 550s?

This guy (Psydotek on nasioc) has a pretty nice setup:



FF1000s (my lights) on the bar, and 500s for the other 6, I think.

The silver WRX is Marvin's (Rapid Roo on nasioc). he helps organize the ITN rallies.
http://www.pbase.com/mzc/image/41682867

The two lights on the bar are Rally 4000s, and the top four are FF75s, I believe.

holy crap that's alot of lights!

that's overkill though, cause the hella 3000/4000's are pretty damn bright... only need 2 cornering lights on top of the 4 hellas

That's just a black hood, right? Not a CF setup?

Yep, it's just a black hood, I saw Nuwan's car back in Feb when he picked up some wheels I had, Sweet setup, his intercooler sprayer is very slick indeed, not to mention the brake bias valve located in the armrest, I was very impressed.

snowjob wrote:Yep, it's just a black hood, I saw Nuwan's car back in Feb when he picked up some wheels I had, Sweet setup, his intercooler sprayer is very slick indeed, not to mention the brake bias valve located in the armrest, I was very impressed.

I was wondering what I'd have to search for in order to come up with what he did.. Time to check the Brakes forum!!!

So is there really a lighting CONTEST, or is it just who can put the highest load on their electrical system and not have the car die?